An update has been posted over in the QUAKE Live news by project lead, Marty Stratton with a couple worthy bits. First up is word that barring any emergency updates, any future planned updates will be done on Tuesdays. The second bit of juicy news is that they have an update planned for Tuesday July 14th that will cause some downtime. Here’s the crunchy bits for you chew on, right from the source:

In an attempt to allow all of you a greater ability to plan your play schedules - particularly those of you running and playing in external events, ladders, leagues, etc. - we're going to begin updating QUAKE LIVE exclusively on Tuesdays. This does not mean that every Tuesday we will have an update, just simply that if we do have an update planned, it will occur on a Tuesday. We'll try to alert you the week before an update is planned both through the forums and through a Tweet. This does not include any emergency maintenance or patches that may be required, but those are very rare.

With this new policy now in place, we'd also like to let you know that we have a fairly large update planned for next Tuesday (July 14). We are currently planning to take the site down in the late morning (U.S. Central Time) and be down for 3-4 hours. As always, you can get instant site status notifications by following us on Twitter. We'll post a complete list of changes, additions, and other information with the update.

Along with the recent addition of the new Quarantine map into QUAKE Live some other maps have been tweaked for gameplay or received exploit fixes. Here’s the official word on not only the map changes but a hint of future updates to come:

Siberia (qzctf8) - Adjusted the item layout to reduce a defense's ability to completely lock down the base

Furious Heights (qztourney7) - Very minor changes to geometry revealed through and requested for competitive play

Scornforge (qzteam4) - Fixed an exploit

Space Chamber (qzdm18) - Fixed an exploit

Over the past 6 weeks we've brought 6 new arenas to QUAKE LIVE that span all game types and sizes, and include both totally new and classic or highly requested arenas. We hope you enjoy the extra hours of fun and we look forward to bringing more to you in the future. While we've been rolling out these arenas, we've been working on a number of other features and updates that we're looking forward to releasing over the next several weeks. Look for a developer blog later in the week with a more detailed progress update on Mac/Linux, private servers, competition features, leaderboards, and other changes that are all on the horizon.

The new Quarantine has been added to QUAKE Live so get your frag on in the newest and last map in the "6 new maps in 6 weeks" campaign. The new level is aimed at Clan Arena action but is also available for Duel, FFA and Team Dm and it's not a redone classic level, but a brand new piece by Yan 'Method' Ostretsov. You can get a peek at the map in the Quarantine Preview where you'll get some info and screenshots before you jump on in to frag the day away!

It's a little earlier than usual, but it's very kool that the preview for the next new map for QUAKE Live has been posted! Head on over to the Quarantine Preview for a look at the latest and last map in the "6 new maps in 6 weeks campaign". The new map is designed for Clan Arena style action but it's also going to work with Team Dm, Free For All and Duel modes. Without further ado, here's the official word on this new thriller!

For week 6 of our campaign we're very excited to deliver "Quarantine," another totally new arena created by resident designer Yan 'Method' Ostretsov - author of our week two CTF arena 'Siberia' as well as other popular CA maps 'Trinity' and 'Asylum'. Quarantine was originally designed specifically for Clan Arena and features 3 primary "zones," surrounding and connected in multiple ways to an area of higher ground in the center. This architecturally and artistically distinct arena is medium sized and most suitable for 2-10 players in Clan Arena, Team Deathmatch, Duel, and Free for All. For team deathmatch, the teleporters have been blocked and power-ups added to better promote the strategy and style of TDM play.

Here we are in week 5 of the "6 Maps in 6 Weeks Campaign" and we'll get the fifth map later today! The new map is the now classic Courtyard Conundrum, originally created by the Threewave team. This map has been well used and much abused over the years and it holds some fine memories for me, like when Planet Quake beat id Software on the map not long after it was released. The map suits 8 to 12 players and holds some small tweaks that will add just a little spice to your flag snagging frag sessions. Check out the Courtyard Conundrum Preview for a peek, and get ready to give it a good poke later on today!

It’s time for a look at the next new map that will be added to QUAKE Live tomorrow, and it’s the classic CTF house of flags and frags, Courtyard Conundrum! Originally created by Threewave’s "Casey" and "Zoid", this level is another popular beast from the early days of Quake 3 Arena and it’s been tweaked to perfection for the action of QUAKE Live. Head on over to the Courtyard Conundrum Preview for pics, a desktop wallpaper in various sizes and some info. Next up in the “6 maps in 6 weeks” campaign is going to be a new map for Clan Arena style play, the last map in the campaign.

For week 5 we bring you "Courtyard Conundrum," another classic CTF arena from the earliest days of Threewave and our friends "Casey" and "Zoid." Like Bloodlust, Courtyard Conundrum was originally created and released in 2000 as part of a 3-pack of CTF maps for the original QUAKE III Arena. This arena has been a long-time favorite, and is a welcomed addition to the QUAKE LIVE CTF arena rotation. Courtyard Conundrum provides a nice combination of larger open bases and tighter connecting areas, and is most often played with 8-12 players.

If you didn’t hear about the latest update to QUAKE Live, the classic duel map Blood Run from ztn was added to the mix, but there was more to it than just a new map. The team made some changes to the way Team DM (Team Deathmatch) is played for higher skilled players. There are now “pro” designated servers where the weapon spawn times have been set at 30 seconds, and increase over the standard setting. This will make it trickier for newer players, which is why the new designation on the altered servers. Here’s the official word:

Speaking of TDM, we used the down-time tonight to also make a change to the Team Deathmatch server configurations for higher skilled players. We've had a number of requests to have weapon respawn times in Team Deathmatch set to 30 seconds. This creates gameplay that is difficult and frustrating for newer or lower skilled players, but we understand the value for players and teams that are higher skilled and particularly understand the nuances of TDM strategy and gameplay. To accommodate both types of players, we've set our higher skill matches to use the requested 30 second weapon respawn times (these matches will be labeled 'pro TDM'), but left lower skill matches unchanged (these will continue to simply be labeled TDM).

The QUAKE Live “6 Maps in 6 Weeks” campaign is still going strong, and we were promised a new duel level addition this time around. We’ll get the map to play on today, and it’s the classic Blood Run map from community mapper Sten "ztn" Uusvali! The map was originally created for Quake 1 in 1997 as a homage to the game’s E1M5 “Gloom Keep” level, and it was a hit with players around the world. In 2000 the map was redone for Quake 3 by the original author and became more than just popular, it was a staple of competitions the world over, which made it a natural for QUAKE Live. Head on over to the Blood Run Preview for a peek at the map, and get ready to rock later on today when the map is put into the game.

QUAKE Live fans will get the promised new duel map tomorrow, and it's the famed ztn classic, Blood Run! That's right gang, this one's been hot since it came out for Quake in 1997, and then got another round in the sun as one of the top Quake 3 duel levels, and tomorrow it hits QUAKE Live! You can check out the official Blood Run Preview to see how this classic looks today and get pumped up to hammer on it tomorrow in the flesh, as it were.

If you like to watch others battle it out, you’re going to love that Gamefire teamed up with the GGL and will be covering the upcoming QUAKE Live ClanArena 2v2 action June 9th and Thursday, June 11th at 9 PM EST! With Gamefire covering the events, you’ll get live coverage and more. Make sure you’re pumped up, primed and ready for the action, and you can join the community in IRC #gamefire on GameSurge and QuakeNet to cheer on your favourites or make your own predictions on the outcome. With QUAKE Live being such a fast paced game with plenty of punch, you just know these matches will be memorable, so head on over to Gamefire for all the details and info you need to be a part of it all!

We’ll be getting the third map in the QUAKE Live “6 Maps in 6 Weeks” today, but you can check out a preview of Bloodlust CTF now! This 8 to 10 player CTF level was originally done by the Threewave crew, and it’s been tweaked and altered to offer some fresh, yet solid gameplay. Here’s the official word, now get ready to rock in a funky new spot!

In 1999, id Software contracted two young developers, Michael "Casey" Goodhead and Dave "Zoid" Kirsch (known collectively as "Threewave") to create 3 Capture the Flag arenas for QUAKE III Arena. The first in this 3-pack was called Bloodlust - and now the source from which we bring you our week 3 release. In revisiting this map over the last couple of months, the team here decided to make some renovations before releasing it in QUAKE LIVE, and we're very happy with the additions, changes, and polish we've been able to contribute. Bloodlust is perfectly suited for 8 to 10 players and rewards teamwork.

Our long-time friend Casey continues to bring his talents to the game industry as the Game Design Director at Threewave Software.

Although we've now released back-to-back CTF arenas, next week's release will certainly quench the thirst of our Duelers. Stay tuned.

As promised, a new level was added to QUAKE Live yesterday and it's the new CTF map, Siberia! Along with the new level comes a small update that states they are still hard at work on the Linux and Mac versions as well as the private servers and leader boards. Two fixes have also been included in this update:

Today’s the day we’re supposed to get a crack at the newest level for QUAKE Live, the brand new CTF map Siberia! If you haven’t done so yet, head on over for a peek at the Siberia preview and get ready for some flag snagging action in this fresh house of frag! This map is the second in the QUAKE Live “6 new maps in 6 weeks” campaign, so get ready for more new juice to come as well!

This Tuesday (May 26th), another new map will be added to QUAKE Live in the "6 new maps in 6 weeks" campaign, and the newest addition is the brand-spanking-new CTF level, Siberia! You can head on over for a Siberia Sneak Peek where you'll get a bit of basic info, some screenshots and a new wallpaper in various sizes. Get ready folks, 'cause Siberia is coming!

Along with the release of the new Hidden Forces map for QUAKE Live the other day was some changes fixes and tweaks to the game itself and the site that it runs in. This list is pretty long, so give it a good once over before you head on in for more action. Here’s the list as posted by id’s TTimo!

Redesigned the navigation bar used for Play Online and Play Offline pages.

Fixed an issue where IE wouldn't default to a proper game type when going to the Match Browser.

Added a "Link to this Match" button that becomes visible when you are in an online game. You can send this link to your friends for joining you in a game you are playing.

Fixed a problem with long names on the match details popups not using the full available space.

Fixed some problems that would prevent certain clan tags from being saved properly on the Edit Profile page.

Changed the date format used on a player's awards page to match the format we use elsewhere on the site.

Void exploit on qzteam6, qzdm12, qzdm11 fixed.

Fixed proxy mines radius exploit.

Fixes for player names getting clipped in the team scoreboard.

Switching to spectator now properly resets the player ready flag.

Practice offline w/ bots uses correct CA health/armor settings now.

Clan Tags now listed on Invite Inbox and Invite Outbox.

New 'raw device' input mode. Set in_mouse 2 to bypass DirectInput and talk to your mouse device directly. We have seen bad interference from various software, and in general you might get more reliable / better quality mouse input with in_mouse 2.

We fixed a bug in the frags/deaths/games count, so you may find that your tally has changed and is now correct. We didn't see anyone complain about a lower death count.

I know it’s my day off, but I just had to shout about the new content on the way to QUAKE Live in the form of new maps, and you can get your first peek in the new Hidden Fortress Preview! This map was originally part of the Quake 3 Dreamcast version and if you want to try it out in your PC version of Quake 3, you can grab the pack and separate Arena file here on FilePlanet (Map 07 I believe it is.). There's even more good news though as id Software is going to be giving us six new maps in their "6 new maps in 6 weeks" campaign of new content. This is sweet news indeed, and you had better stay tuned for more juice as it gets freshly squeezed! And now, your official blurbness:

We're kicking off our "6 new maps in 6 weeks" campaign with Hidden Fortress. Although new to QUAKE LIVE, this arena first appeared in the Sega Dreamcast version of QUAKE III Arena. Already considered the best new arena created for QUAKE III Dreamcast, we chose to make very few changes in bringing this classic map to QUAKE LIVE. The arena was originally created by Martin Kaai Cluney, a designer for Raster Productions. Kaai is now a designer at id Software working on the RAGE team. Hidden Fortress is a medium sized map with three main rooms - perfect for 6-10 player team deathmatch, clan arena and free for all gameplay. Although we chose to start with a classic map from the Dreamcast, we'll be debuting a mix of new and classic maps in the weeks to come.

QUAKE Live players will get some help with their HUDs in the Quake Live HUD Tutorial by Borgondio! The tutorial is a work-in-progress, which means it will grow to hold more info, but it already has more than enough tips to get you tweaked up and ready to play your way. Check it out in full at the Quake Live HUD Tutorial!

I caught new QUAKE Live clan video called Blue - Live Fragging at ESReality this morning, and it’s pretty smooth! The flick uses some nice effects and a pleasing soundtrack to carry through with the fragging action of Clan Blue by joka. The slot on ESReality has links for the streaming and download versions, so pick your flavour and get to watching.

Description: As my first Quake movie in... 4-5 years... I thought it would be fun to try and make a nice Quake Live movie for my clan "BLUE". Turns out it's quite hard without recaming to "fall back" on. But I'm still happy with the result.

As promised in the latest news update on QUAKE Live, project lead 'Munching' Marty Stratton has updated the site with a two part devblog entry that talks about the recent changes, and even more exciting, the future plans of the newest Quake! It's simply far too big and fully packed with juicy tidbits to post it here, so get yourself over and read it all for yourself. Major points mentioned are private servers, new content (Maps!), the Mac and Linux builds and much more! Get started with QUAKE Live Devblog Update: Part 1 and then slide into Part 2. Don't miss it folks, it's phat!